Tom Petty Didn’t Remember Getting Any Advice From Bob Dylan

TL;DR:

• Tom Petty said he treated Bob Dylan like any other person.
• Tom Petty said that he couldn’t remember getting any advice from Bob Dylan.
• Bob Dylan taught Tom Petty a lot about music. 

Tom Petty toured with Bob Dylan in the 1980s and performed with him in The Traveling Wilburys several years later. They worked well together and formed an easy friendship, and Petty said he learned a lot from Dylan. Despite this, he said he had no memory of ever giving him any advice. 

Tom Petty formed an easygoing friendship with Bob Dylan 

Petty had listened to Dylan as a teenager and said he took a lot of inspiration from him. It was thrilling to meet him, and Petty said that Dylan remained down-to-earth.

“When you have that kind of success, and you’re the best songwriter who ever lived, a lot of myth is built up around you,” Petty said, per American Songwriter. “And it’s quite a lot to carry around every day. But I admire him for remaining a good guy, an honest guy.”

Petty said he treated Dylan like he would treat anyone else, which helped their friendship.

“I saw a lot of people running circles around Bob, being afraid of him, or afraid to say what was on their mind,” he explained. “Trying to anticipate what he was trying to say or do. I always found that if I asked Bob a direct question, I would get a direct answer. So maybe our friendship wasn’t that difficult, because I made up my mind that I would treat him like anybody else. Though I was certainly in awe of his talent. But people are just people.”

He didn’t remember the other musician giving him any advice

In 1985, Petty and the Heartbreakers successfully backed Dylan at Farm Aid. It went over so well that Dylan invited them on tour with him.

“We’d all been huge Dylan fans, and we were very intrigued by the idea of playing with Bob,” Petty said. “So off we went. And that went on for two years. We’d do part of it and then more would get added on, and then more would get added on. We really did the world with Bob Dylan.”

After the lengthy tour, Petty went on to work with Dylan in The Traveling Wilburys. Over this lengthy period of time, one would assume that Petty received some advice from the legendary musician. According to him, this was not the case.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” Petty said in 1999, per The Petty Archives, adding, “I don’t remember Bob giving me any advice. Maybe he was always giving me advice.”

Tom Petty said it was very rewarding to tour with Bob Dylan

While he may not have gotten any advice, Petty said working with Dylan was rewarding. 

“It was so rewarding musically. Just so much fun,” he said. “And there were great, great songs to play. Wow. All those songs, and they were really good. It was such a thrill to play ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ with Bob. And we’d sing harmony, and there was only one mike.”

Petty said that sharing a microphone had significance in music history, but it also added to the fun of the concerts.

“That was the theory, that kind of goes back to folk music, that everybody is going to sing on one mike and balance themselves,” he said. “But God, it was fun.”